Washington State législature bills in 2019-2020 session

[Sarah594]

I'm concerned about the bills in Washington State that will impact hosts ( HB 1798 - 2019-20, Concerning short-term rentals. Sponsors: Ryu, Mosbrucker, Stanford, Pollet and the companion bill in the Senate). These are two bills in the legislature that will affect hosts profoundly, probably putting many out of business. I wanted to contact AIrbnb public policy people about this with no luck.

The House bill is scheduled to receive public input on Tuesday, Feb 11, 2019.

Is this the best way to contact hosts in the state to rally an action? Some local hosts received an email about this. Airbnb has an office in Seattle, so I was assuming people there would be interested in getting grassroots support but the meager contact I could find refused and pointed me to ‘‘tis community forum area. It’s quite short notice that they have scheduled public input. While I am recommending the few people I know to write thei legislators that is a pitifully small number. We, and Airbnb, would benefit from statewide participation. I’m surprised Airbnb isn’t facilitating that kind of action because it works.

Here is a link to the House bill. Read it, you’ll see it will put many out of business. https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1798&Year=2019&Initiative=false

If you are a Washington resident email your legislator now!

We are strong if we stand together.

[Zacharias0]

Yours is very lax and seems reasonable. They just want tax money, business liscense, host contact information  and a fire exit map posted. Unless Im missing something it seems reasonable. 

Ours in vegas requires a inspection, we cant have more than one per city block, the house has to be owner occupied, and a myriad of building codes have to be implemented even down to the type of sink plumbing we cannot use (no flex pipe). Usually Airbnb has emailed all the hosts in the area and they will have smaller meetings set up. Sadly Airbnb wont show up to council meetings or voice their concerns. They were absent at ours and the council instituted all of the requirments. 

Good Luck. You can private message the hosts on here or find a FB group for Seattle. 

[Sarah594]

Thanks, Zacharias, I think you are correct. When I first read it I thought it was more severe than it is.

[Joseph597]

I think if this is a hotel industry sponsored bill we should probably oppose it at the very least because they would really rather we didn't exist.  I'm not sure that it's Airbnb's responsibility to fight this.  More like we the citizens of Washington State need to jump on this.  Airbnb says this is a hotel industry sponsored bill but I havn't heard back from Airbnb with any information that shows that to be the case.  The bills primary sponsor is Rep Cindy Ryu from the 32nd District which is basically King County and a big chunk of Snohomish County.  It would be really important to write her as well as your own Rep.  I've read the bill and it's surprisingly unthoughtful and in no way address's the many facets of Airbnb, i.e. big operators as opposed to senior citizens renting out a room or building in the back yard'